Tomonori Toyofuku, a sculptor known for his abstract works featuring many oval holes, died Saturday at a hospital in the city of Fukuoka, according to his assistant. He was 94.
Born in Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture, Toyofuku learned woodcarving under the late sculptor Chodo Tominaga after World War II, during which he served as a volunteer soldier in the Imperial Japanese Army.
He moved to Milan in 1960 to continue his artistic career and lived there for more than 40 years. After moving back to Japan in 2003, he continued to travel back and forth between Italy and his home country.
Toyofuku held many solo exhibitions in Japan and Europe, with some of his works now owned by the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome and Carnegie Hall in New York.
He was honored by the Japanese government with the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 1993.